Andy Cullen – Page 97 – CAMRA Sheffield & District

Food Festival beer tent a success!

Posted on 14 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

Local thirst for local beers The Sheffield Brewers Cooperative tent was in the peace gardens as part of the annual Sheffield Food Festival in May. Brewers from Abbeydale, Blue Bee, Exit 33, Kelham Island, Sheffield and Wood Street manned the bar showcasing two beers from each local brewery. The weekend was a success selling a whopping 3,240 pints in just 26 hours of trading! Next year the plan is to take to the stage in the main tent to do a joint meet the brewer with a live brewing demonstration and a special local food and beer-pairing event. Pete Roberts, Exit 33 Brewing.

Exit 33

Posted on 14 Jun 201516 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

Exit 33 is providing beer and the infrastructure behind the Brothers Arms beer festival at the This is Heeley event 24^th – 26^th July. To coincide with summer a new Exit 33 seasonal beer is being introduced for the next 3 months. Golden Cascade 4.5% is a great tasting well-balanced pint characterised by a fresh hoppy clean taste through the use of Cascade hops. This beer is also brewed with Munich malt, which adds a golden hue and imparts a sweet malty and biscuity background flavour.

Pub of the Month July 2015

Posted on 14 Jun 201513 Sep 2015 by Andy Cullen

The Cremorne at 185 London Road S2 4LH was a mid Victorian street corner local and although the origin of the name is not clear it could be named after the 1872 Derby winner. Originally comprising two small rooms, in the 1980’s it was opened out and extended into the adjoining property, part of which is at a lower level. The interior is fairly basic, with the walls partly exposed brickwork and the floors a mixture of flagstones and bare boards, although the seating is comfortably upholstered. An outside drinking area is accessed from the lower level. At one time created a Tetley Festival Ale House with a plaque still inset in the floor, it is now free of tie and has ten handpumps dispensing up to eight real ales and two traditional ciders. The regular beers are Kelham Island Best Bitter and Saltaire Raspberry Blonde and always a beer from Pictish. The rest are mainly sourced from Yorkshire, with the aim of providing a variety of styles and strengths, with at least one dark beer. As well as the two ciders there is now a craft keg line, and two gluten free bottled beers from St. Peter’s Brewery are available. The pub is open 3 – 12 Mon/Thu, 3 – 1am Fri, 12 – 1am Sat and 12 – 12 Sun, with food, comprising pizzas and sandwiches available 6 – 10pm (12 – 10pm Sat/Sun). There is music every evening, with live acoustic Sundays, alternating folk or jazz jam sessions Mondays, open mic Tuesdays and DJs or live bands in between. Close to Bramall Lane, the pub is busy on home match days, but always offers a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Regular customers come from a wide area giving a good mix and providing a lively community spirit. Congratulations to manager Rachel, her assistant Tom and all the staff on achieving the pub of the month award. Join us for the presentation which will be on Tuesday 14^th July from 8pm; there are regular buses from town (20/20A, 75/76, 87, 97/98) stopping outside. Wils Gee

Manchester

Posted on 11 Jun 201531 Aug 2018 by Andy Cullen

There are many excellent pubs and breweries in Manchester on a bright sunny day in early June I took a trip over the Pennines to sample their wares.

Starting off at the Marble Arch pub on Rochdale Road. The birthplace of Marble brewery, this pub has plenty of Marble beers on, as well as guest ales from the likes of Darkstar and Hawkshead. Marble have long had a reputation as an outstanding brewery and the beer I chose was Marble Pint, which was the perfect beer to start off with on a hot summers day, in a pub with a wonderful grand interior. The food menu looked very enticing as well, although this wasn’t the venue where I chose to eat.

From the Marble Arch I set off back down Rochdale Road towards Manchester town centre, coming to the Angel. Another friendly traditional pub with beers from the likes of Liverpool Organic and Pictish. From there I headed to Bar Fringe on Swan Street. A small bar with plenty of Belgian beers and 5-6 cask ales.

Carrying on down Swan Street, past the Smithfield pub, which is currently closed for refurbishment I came to the Crown & Kettle at the junction with the Oldham Road. This was my favourite pub of the visit. I started off with an IPA from the much hyped Cloudwater brewery.

Then I sampled a couple of pale ales on cask from another new Manchester brewery called Track. Both of which impressed me more than Cloudwater IPA. The ceiling in the Crown & Kettle is also of note, although I dread to think what the cost would be for much needed repairs to this ceiling. From the Crown & Kettle I headed away from Swan Street to Pie & Ale. A new place that, as the name suggests, specialises in craft beer and pies. The cask ale was good and so was the food. Looking at places such as Craft & Dough in Sheffield, and Bundobust in Leeds, I think that the craft beer and street food combination is going to be a trend to watch out for before too long.

I then headed to Port Street Beer House, a bar that I’ve heard much about for some time. As such I was quite enthusiastic about visiting this place and happily this small, cosy bar didn’t disappoint. The beer I had was Thornbridge/Wild Beer Co Tart, which was indeed quite tart! My final stop before catching the train back was the Piccadilly Tap. Another new bar on the approach to Manchester Piccadilly station that was very busy when I visited. Downstairs it has a similar layout to London’s Euston Tap. The beer I sampled in here was an old favourite. Thornbridge Cocoa Wonderland. I came away very impressed with the Manchester beer scene. It has a very good mix of breweries and venues and is right up there as one of the top beer destinations in the UK right now. Tom Sturgess

Welbeck Abbey

Posted on 11 Jun 201516 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

We have an exciting new partnership on our hands! The Roman Southwell Archaeology Community Project was established in January 2014 and since then has quickly gathered pace. They have not only conducted field walking and aerial surveys, but are now well on their way to conducting an excavation. To help raise awareness of this project, and perhaps a little cash too, we are teaming up to brew a Roman-style beer. The community group have researched the style of beer which would have been brewed back then, and we have formulated a recipe. We will be brewing a 3.8% British barley focused pale ale using the aptly named British Boadicea hops. The beer is to be called ‘Roman Southwell Gladiator’. These hops are named after the famous Queen of the Iceni tribe, who led a rebellion against the Romans in the 1st century AD. They have a distinctively fresh British meadow aroma of herb and fresh grass – a truly Romano-British beer! The beer will be brewed on Monday 8^th June at Welbeck with the help of the volunteer archaeologists. They will be able to measure out all the raw ingredients and add them to the brewing process, just as our ancestors have done for centuries. We will be launching this beer at the Hearty Goodfellow in Southwell on Thursday 25th June at 7pm. Please join us on the day for a taster and to meet the group. The beer will be available to purchase in most of the Southwell pubs after this date If you miss it on cask, or would like to try the bottled version, the group will be retailing the beer at all their events from the start of July. For further details about the project please contact Matt Beresford matt@mbarchaeology.co.uk

The Angel at Spinkhill

Posted on 11 Jun 201517 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

The Angel Spinkhill Community Interest Company (CIC) recently concluded the sale of The Angel, to Chris and Jean Norfolk. Chris is a successful and experienced local restaurateur who the CIC believe has the vision and expertise to take The Angel forward as a thriving pub/restaurant. Commencing with an Asset of Community Value (ACV) listing, this has been a lengthy and complex process. However, the CIC have remained focussed upon their original goals of:

Saving The Angel,
Returning it to our community under the guidance of an experienced professional
Retaining it for the future of the community.

These goals are based upon supporting community interest as opposed to financial gain. In January 2014, North East Derbyshire District Council refused an application to convert The Angel after villagers, with the support of Sheffield CAMRA, made their case to save the pub at a planning meeting. The plan would have allowed a property developer to have converted The Angel into two houses, retain a small portion of the pub for a small public bar and build two detached houses in the garden. The council’s planning committee unanimously refused the application due to the site being listed as an ACV – the first in North East Derbyshire. It was the first time in the country an ACV listing was been cited as the primary reason for a council to refuse planning permission. Over the next few weeks the CIC will be:

Returning all donations and investments, without which none of this could have happened.
Inviting all donors to a meeting, in the school hall, to outline the work which the CIC has undertaken

Sheffield CAMRA would like to congratulate all involved for their parts in saving the Angel and wish then good fortune in the future. Dave Pickersgill

Shiny Sheff

Posted on 11 Jun 201516 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

After being closed for six months, The Shiny Sheff at Lodge Moor reopened after a major refurbishment, even the car park is weed free.

The pub got it’s name from HMS Sheffield, a large model is displayed in the tap room. The original HMS Sheffield was fitted out with stainless steel from Sheffield and became known as the Shiny Sheff. There is interesting information about the ship around the room in which there is also a dart board and pool table. The conservatory has been opened up to bring it into the lounge which has a panoramic view of Higger Tor across the back wall of the raised area and there are photos of the Peak District around the wall. The managers Andy and Paul are making everyone welcome, with regulars in their favourite seats and former customers returning. Bradfield Farmer’s Blonde is the regular beer and there will be two rotating guests. There is a full menu from tasty snacks to roast dinners and mouth watering desserts. Throughout the week there is something for everyone, Tuesday is free pool and poker night and on Thursday there is a music Quiz. Friday is Karaoke night there is live entertainment on Saturday night. On Sunday night there is a general knowledge quiz and open the box. You have got to be “Init To Winit” The 51 bus to Lodge Moor serves the pub and there are wonderful views across Rivelin Valley from the decking at the front of the pub.

ACV update

Posted on 11 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

Sheffield CAMRA is taking part in a national CAMRA pilot scheme which is encouraging local branches to nominate pubs as Assets of Community Value (ACV). The branch has identified eleven local pubs : a mix of heritage, suburban, city centre and rural. With assistance from CAMRA HQ, the paperwork will be completed and submitted to the relevant Local Authority. We then await their decisions. Pubs that are ACV-listed require planning permission to be demolished or for any other change of use. Currently only one Sheffield pub, the Castle (Bolsterstone) has ACV status. In addition, The Plough (Crosspool) has recently applied.

What does the committee pubs officer do?

Posted on 11 Jun 201517 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

Sheffield CAMRA’s new Pubs Officers, Paul Crofts and Mark Boardley on the challenge of keeping track of Sheffield & District pubs. As you may know, Sheffield CAMRA has been looking for members to get more involved in its activities, and in particular for new committee members. In response to this both myself (Paul) and Mark independently offered to take on the role of Pubs Officer. (Disappointingly no one made any reference to buses – “wait ages for one and then two turn up at once” etc. We suspect that the chairman, as a Supertram employee, has placed an embargo on any transport -based jocularity!) This function has been neglected for the last couple of years and needs a fair bit of work bringing things up to date so it was decided that two heads would be better than one, and we would share the work. Our initial plan is to get the Whatpub website up to date. If you’re not familiar with Whatpub, we’d recommend having a look next time you’re on t’internet. It has lots of information on pubs across the country and is a great way of finding places to visit. You can do a basic search by entering a keyword such as an area or pub name, and then up to 36 different filters can be applied to narrow the list down to pubs that suit your requirements, whether that’s for food; parking; disabled access; dog-friendly pubs; proximity to public transport, etc. Sheffield & District has 586 pubs and a good proportion haven’t been surveyed for over 3 years, so obviously this might take a while. And this is where CAMRA members can help. When you’ re visiting pubs in the area, any information you pick up that you think may be relevant can be emailed to us at the addresses below and we will act on it immediately. Mark is handling the East of Sheffield, and I’ll handle the West, though you can email either of us and we’ll sort it out. As well as details on the beer choice and pub facilities, you can also send us photos. The pub frontage is the first thing we need, but a few internal photos can also be included. We have already started on the updates, but obviously we can act a lot faster if you help us find the major errors and out-of-date information on the site. There are over 1400 members in the Sheffield branch so if each person sent us an update on just 1 pub it would give us more than enough to start on. (Yes, we know. It would also give us quite a bit of duplication. Our maths isn’t that bad. Mark will do 45%, I’ll do 45%, we’ll pass 25% to the committee and the remaining 7% we’ll leave till next year!) We’ll need to verify the information sent in, but it will be a massive help in knowing where to start. So, in summary – Get to the Pub! And if your other half asks what your doing, tell ’em Paul and Mark said it was all right. Cheers! Paul Crofts – pubsofficer@sheffieldcamra.org.uk Mark Boardley – pubscampaigns@sheffieldcamra.org.uk

Abbeydale Brewery

Posted on 11 Jun 201516 Jun 2015 by Andy Cullen

It’s that time of year guys, SunFest is upon us! The Rising Sun at Nether Green (the 83A and 120 bus stops right outside the pub!) is the place to be from 9th – 12th July for over 100 beers and ciders plus top quality entertainment and of course the annual Dog Show on the Sunday afternoon. Look out for a beer list to be released shortly before the festival via our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Our charity partner this year for SunFest is The James Brownhill Memorial Fund (JBMF). The fund has been set up by James’ family following his death on the Frendo Spur in the French Alps, above Chamonix, July 1st 2011. James was an avid climber and mountaineer, he constantly strove to improve his skills and abilities, helping him progress into many areas and disciplines of the climbing world. The fund awards volunteers with bursaries to undertake courses to consolidate and develop safe climbing practice for teaching new and inexperienced climbers in individual and group situations. James will be greatly missed, but through the fund we hope to preserve a passion and attitude to safe climbing that James constantly upheld. James was a local lad, whose favourite beer was Moonshine, so we are honoured to be supporting a local charity with strong links to both the pub and the community. www.jbmf.co.uk Like every year, we brew a special beer for SunFest, and this year it will be ‘Summit’. A pale 4.1% hoppy beer brewed with American hops (including a good dose of Summit). We will be donating 10p for every pint of ‘Summit’ brewed to JBMF. All the other beers to come out of Abbeydale HQ this month are all brand spankingly new, so much so, as we go to print the recipes are still being formulated by our (mad) brewers!!! Expect another beer in our Signature series and the latest beer in our Albion British hops series. Exciting times ahead! See you at SunFest!